Protecting Our Server from AI Scrapers: The Story Behind Anubis

You're seeing this message because our administrator has set up Anubis, a cutting-edge security system designed to safeguard our website against the threat of AI-powered scraping companies. While it may seem like an added layer of protection, we understand that it can also cause downtime for our site, making its resources inaccessible to everyone. But what exactly is Anubis, and how does it work?

A Solution to a Modern Problem

Anubis uses a Proof-of-Work scheme similar to Hashcash, a proposed solution to reduce email spam. At an individual scale, the additional load may seem insignificant, but when multiple AI companies come together, it becomes exponentially more expensive for them to scrape our website. The idea behind Anubis is that by making scraping more costly, we can create a barrier that encourages legitimate users to navigate through our challenge proof-of-work page.

A Compromise and a Hack

While Anubis may seem like a silver bullet solution, it's actually a hack whose true purpose is to provide a "good enough" placeholder until we can develop more advanced solutions. The real goal here is to spend more time on fingerprinting and identifying headless browsers, which are often used by AI-powered scraping companies. By doing so, we hope to make the challenge proof-of-work page less appealing to illegitimate users.

Technical Requirements

Anubis requires the use of modern JavaScript features, which some plugins like JShelter may disable. If you're using a plugin that blocks these features, please consider disabling it for our website. However, please note that this website is currently running Anubis version 1.20.0, and JavaScript must be enabled to proceed.

A No-JS Solution: A Work-in-Progress

Unfortunately, we're still working on a no-JS solution for our site. The social contract around how website hosting works has changed, and we need to adapt to these new demands. While Anubis provides an added layer of security, it's not a permanent fix, and we'll continue to explore alternative solutions in the future.

Thank you for your understanding, and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about our website's security measures.